SCULPTING BEAUTY

Our columnist Willow Kemp on the power of sculpture and how to source and display this art form

- Willow Kemp

As design director for Kit Kemp Design Studio and art ambassador for Firmdale Hotels, and having studied architecture at Cambridge and sculpture in Germany, Willow is well versed in finding the perfect pieces.

"Three-dimensional forms have always captured my imagination. The first work that entranced me was a driftwood sculpture of a stag in our garden by sculptor Heather Jansch. Ingeniously constructed from natural driftwood and pieced together with car filler, it depicts the majesty and spirit of a stag from every perspective.

Studying architecture cultivated my passion; alongside the technical architectural skills, we were encouraged to experiment with sketching and model making. Both spatial arts, architecture and sculpture have many similarities the necessity to think in 3D, the structure informing materiality and vice versa. At times I found architectural planning to be quite restrictive (not always a bad thing) but found model-making fantastically freeing. The idea that sculpture requires similar conceptual thought processes to architecture, but with total creative freedom, led me to study sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under director Sir Tony Cragg. I'm fortunate to be able to put the knowledge gained to use in my work now, where I design on all scales, and sculptures find their way into every project, from small bronze maquettes to huge suspended forms and monolithic public sculptures.